Sky Blue Blog

Sketchy Memories

After a long day at
work, I went over to the Red Key Tavern with my friend, local
artist Erin K Drew, for an evening of good
D&D (drawing and drinking).

I was introduced to the
Red Key when local artist and Manhattan drinker, Kipp Normand, invited my husband and
me to his favorite bar on a Friday night. I followed Kipp's
lead by ordering the drink rendered on the neon sign outside and became a
Manhattan drinker myself. Lana served our drinks in the vintage glasses with
the "R" on them (now gone), and filled us in on the rich history of the place.
"Frances Farmer used to drink Old Fashioneds here," she told us and went on to talk about the
time Ben Affleck visited the Red Key to film the adaptation of hoosier novelist Dan Wakefield'sGoing All the Way.

Erin K Drew

"Patron #2"

On this particular evening
with EKD, patrons nursed beers and watched Animal Planet's Shark Week episodes on the tube. Eyes went wide with excitement and
more beers were ordered as the sea creatures kept us all in captivated.

I ordered a Manhattan
and Erin ordered a beer.

I began drawing a
customer at the bar, Marc Jacobson, because I know him as a professor from my
days at Herron. He sat at the bar switching his attention from his book to the
sharks and back again. Now, the thing about drawing people you know is that
when the drawing does not look like the person, it is hard to enjoy your
drawing at all. I crumpled my first attempts until I got a good Marc Jacobson
down. I looked over and Erin's markers were gliding over her paper without
hesitation. Perhaps I needed to loosen up a bit.

Our waitress, Brandy,
came over to deliver more drinks. She told us she had been working at the Red
Key on and off for about 10 years. "Since Russ passed away, there are younger
people hanging out at the Red Key. Some of them don't know the rules."

Ah, yes, the famous
rules. I do remember being told on my first visit about the rules: Hang your
coat; you cannot move the furniture; no swearing; and no standing around. "I
think the rules are what keep the spirit of Russ alive," Brandy said. "Russ is
what makes this bar special."

Erin remembers the first
time she learned about the rules; "I had my feet up on a chair, and a lady
tapped my feet." She said that it was a moment that taught her "reverence for the
place."

Jennifer Delgadillo

"Blonde Coif"

I ordered another
Manhattan, this time without the cherry -- the equivalent of taking your shoes
off on a wedding dance floor. There is a thin man with a blonde coif, and I
really want to capture how amazing his hair is.

Everything we draw seems
silly now. And so I draw the man who turned to look at us as we cackled away
throwing Corn Nuts into our laughing mouths.

By the end of the night
I was sipping whiskey on the rocks and had run into a handful of more Herron
professors with whom I brought up my grades to at one point. I wobbled away to
my husband who was parked outside; it was time for me to go home.

The next day I woke up
and looked at my drawings (more can be seen at jengadillo.tumblr.com) -- cave painting Polaroids,
they seemed. Hasty symbols of yesterday. Many artists must know this feeling.
It is my consolation for the consequential headache to be part of that
experience.

The Red Key is not
considered an artist's bar; all kinds of people come here. But all who come do
have something in common. Whether it is Kurt Vonnegut, Russell Settle, Frances
Farmer, Dan Wakefield, or Ben Affleck (doubt it), we all come here with those
who were here before. Here the lines between the city's history
blends with our own personal histories (and, in my case, the lines on the
sketch pad).